Why we still need to talk about race

Abstract

The version in the Kent Academic Repository may differ from the final published version. Users are advised to check http://kar.kent.ac.uk for the status of the paper. Users should always cite the published version of record.

Blurring of colour lines? Ethnoracially mixed youth in Spain navigating identity

“…To situate our study on Spanish multiracial and multiethnic individuals, some contextual background is needed. Although Europe may not be a strictly pigmentocratic society in the way that North America (especially the United States, with its legacy of slavery) and Latin America have been (Telles and Sue 2009), skin colour and other physical traits are nonetheless important markers for social interaction, belonging, and differential social treatment in the European context (Lentin 2008;Simon 2017Simon , 2018Song 2018; see also European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights 2018). For this reason, race, a topic usually shunned in contemporary Europe and a taboo category in academic and political discourse since the end of World War II (with 'ethnicity' being the preferred term), still deserves a great deal of attention in the continent overall; race is a constructed yet structural 'social fact' (Bonilla-Silva 1999) that remains a significant boundary driving stigmatisation and discrimination.…”

How diverse is your reading list? Exploring issues of representation and decolonisation in the UK

“…Both approaches suffer drawbacks, as there is no consensus on the appropriate terms to use for the scientific study of ethnicity and race (see Bhopal 2004). On the one hand, the use of 'BME' is seen as a somewhat 'blunt' instrument that attempts to be inclusive without taking into consideration the nuanced, locally defined populations (Bhopal 2004;Song 2018). On the other, large categories such as 'white' conceal heterogeneity, shifting demographic patterns and growing numbers of multiracial people (Song 2018).…”

“…On the one hand, the use of 'BME' is seen as a somewhat 'blunt' instrument that attempts to be inclusive without taking into consideration the nuanced, locally defined populations (Bhopal 2004;Song 2018). On the other, large categories such as 'white' conceal heterogeneity, shifting demographic patterns and growing numbers of multiracial people (Song 2018). Further, there is virulent debate about whether a terminology of 'race' should also be used to meaningfully measure difference (Roth 2016;Song 2018).…”

“…On the other, large categories such as 'white' conceal heterogeneity, shifting demographic patterns and growing numbers of multiracial people (Song 2018). Further, there is virulent debate about whether a terminology of 'race' should also be used to meaningfully measure difference (Roth 2016;Song 2018). Similar debates about identity and classification continue to take place with regard to other variables such as gender and sexuality (e.g.…”

Understanding multiethnic and multiracial experiences globally: towards a conceptual framework of mixedness

“…For multiracial and multiethnic persons, as the National Geographic's Race Issue cover story illustrates, the questioning of their belonging is something real that they face in their social spheres. So while the ontological argument is clear that race is a social construct, it must be understood that race, and ethnicity too, are social facts with real effects on people's everyday lives (Bonilla-Silva 1999;Song 2018;Telles and Paschel 2014). Racism, racialisation and other variants of the 'race phenomenon' that are based on perceptions of phenotypes exist because the notion of race is structurally embedded in social, political, economic and cultural institutions (Bonilla-Silva 1999).…”